Republican mayors and councillors, members of the PSOE, PCE, Izquierda Republicana and other Popular Front parties, CNT and UGT officials and active members, militia volunteers, teachers associated with Republican education, journalists and newspaper editors, trade union organisers, civil governors and provincial officials, civil servants considered politically unreliable, freemasons where identified, people denounced by neighbours as supporters of the Republic (could be as simple as having a communist newspaper subscription or attended a socialist town meeting), and inn some provinces, relatives of wanted Republicans. The underlying process was consistent – to remove the people who had represented, organised or symbolised the Republic at the local level, and thereby eliminate the possibility of organised opposition. 

Once a town was occupied, the Army assumed authority under martial law. Arrests were usually carried out by soldiers, the Guardia Civil and, increasingly, Falangist patrols acting under military authority. They were assisted by local civilians, landowners, conservative politicians, clergy, employers and neighbours. Electoral registers, council records, union membership lists and police files were frequently used to locate Republican officials, trade union leaders and political activists. In many towns, the authorities did not need to search for their opponents; they already knew who they were. Mass executions were shootings which occurred sometimes besides cemeteries with space for mass graves, to simple roadsides killings outside of town, in wooded areas, ditches, anywhere. Some bodies were buried, some were left out, where relatives could sneak out and bury them. Some larger sites were in caves and mountainous cavities were people could simply be dropped into, and are still be excavated now. There really wasn’t a defined plan, just brutality variable by location. 

One distinction that historians have increasingly made is between terror by concentration and terror by dispersion. In parts of Andalucía, Extremadura and western Córdoba, terror was often concentrated. Hundreds of prisoners might be executed at one cemetery or on one hill over a few days. Those places became infamous, but the roadside killings are no less important, and will be included as these posts continue. 

• Seville Province, Andalucía
• Republican-held: None
• Nationalist-held: Entire province

The military uprising succeeded decisively in Seville Province, although not every municipality fell at once. Control of Seville city on 18 July gave the Nationalists possession of the province’s administrative centre, principal communications and largest military garrison. During the following days, columns moved rapidly along the Guadalquivir valley and the main road and rail routes, occupying town after town. By the end of July, almost the entire province was under Nationalist control, with only a few isolated eastern communities temporarily remaining outside their authority.

The collapse of Republican resistance was followed by one of the earliest and largest campaigns of political repression in Spain. Arrests began immediately in Seville city before spreading into the surrounding municipalities as Nationalist columns advanced. Republican councillors, trade union officials, agricultural labour organisers, teachers and civilians accused of supporting the Republic were detained, often within hours of a town’s occupation. Executions took place at numerous locations including Seville city, Carmona, La Rinconada, Alcalá de Guadaíra, Écija, Morón de la Frontera, Utrera, Arahal, Osuna, Marchena, Lora del Río and many smaller municipalities. In Seville itself, many victims were executed at the walls of San Fernando Cemetery, while others were killed in military installations or on roads outside the city. Modern estimates suggest between 2,000 and 3,000 Republicans were killed across Seville Province, making it one of the deadliest provinces during the opening weeks of the Civil War. Despite its size, Seville only had a population of 300,000 people, another 1.1 million in the rural areas. This shows how cruel the initial repression executions were on the population as a whole.

By 30 July 1936, organised Republican resistance within the province had effectively disappeared. Military operations increasingly focused on advancing into neighbouring provinces, while Seville itself became the political and military centre of Nationalist Andalucía. For much of the province, the fighting had ended, but arrests and executions continued as the new authorities consolidated their control.

On 30 July, Nationalist forces captured Cantillana, a town of approximately 7,500 inhabitants about 35 kilometres north-east of Seville. The operation formed part of Queipo de Llano’s campaign to eliminate the remaining Republican-held communities in Seville Province following the success of the military uprising in the provincial capital. The assault was led by Commander José Gutiérrez Pérez, with Gonzalo Briones Medina serving as his second-in-command. The column included Legionnaires, Moroccan Regulares, Falangists, requetés and regular army troops supported by artillery, machine guns, motor vehicles, an ambulance and at least one tankette. Before entering the town, the force crossed the Viar River at a ford and deployed on the heights of El Cortijillo, where it fired several artillery rounds into Cantillana shortly before midday.

Nationalist troops entered the town around noon on 30 July and encountered little organised resistance. Several civilians were killed during the occupation, including the twelve-year-old Juan González Espinosa, Rafael Romero Monge, Dr Diego Sarmiento Infante, Jesús Castillo Guerrero, and José Martínez García, who later died of his wounds.

The occupation was immediately followed by mass arrests. Local researchers estimate that around 200 residents were detained and confined in the Guardia Civil barracks. Later that day, 60 prisoners selected from those held there were taken to El Barranco and executed. The repression continued over the following weeks and months as military authorities, assisted by local collaborators, executed dozens more residents in Cantillana and neighbouring municipalities. Modern memorial investigations have identified only 84 victims from the town, although the precise number of people killed remains uncertain. The town was also believed to have suffered looting and mass rape from the Nationalist and Moroccan soldier moving through, and the killing and raping was not reported on orders, as it would harm Nationalists reputations.

One day later, 2km east in La Puebla de Cazalla, became one of the last major towns in eastern Seville Province to fall during the Nationalist campaign. On that day, a Nationalist column commanded by Commander Eduardo Álvarez de Rementería entered the town, encountering little organised resistance. The Republican council was immediately dissolved and replaced by a military-appointed municipal commission loyal to the insurgents, while arrests of Republican officials, trade unionists and suspected supporters of the Republic began within hours of the occupation.

The repression that followed was severe and continued long after the town’s capture. Historians estimate that at least 160 residents of La Puebla de Cazalla were executed, although the true figure may have reached 240 when those killed elsewhere or buried anonymously are taken into account. Many prisoners were removed in groups from the town and shot without trial, while others disappeared into prisons, concentration camps or forced labour battalions. Families of those executed were left without their principal wage earners, forcing women, elderly relatives and children to maintain farms and households under constant surveillance and economic hardship. Although many local men later served in the Nationalist Army after compulsory mobilisation, surviving evidence does not support claims that as many as one thousand residents were forcibly conscripted.

The scale of the killings has been confirmed through modern archaeological investigations. Between 2006 and 2014, excavations of the municipal cemetery recovered the remains of the first 74 victims from the Civil War repression. Many skeletons displayed execution-style gunshot wounds, while others showed evidence that their hands had been bound before death. These excavations provided the first physical confirmation of the mass executions that local families had described for decades and established La Puebla de Cazalla as one of the principal sites of Nationalist repression in Seville Province.

• Cádiz Province, Andalucía
• Republican-held: None
• Nationalist-held: Entire province

The military uprising succeeded across Cádiz Province, population 590,000, within the first days of the Civil War. Control of Cádiz’s ports and the Strait of Gibraltar proved decisive. While the Republican Navy initially hindered the transport of troops from Morocco, Nationalist control of Algeciras allowed the first detachments of the Army of Africa to reach the mainland. From the end of July, German and Italian aircraft greatly increased the flow of soldiers across the Strait, and Cádiz Province became the principal entry point for the Spanish Legion and the Regulares. Many of these experienced troops assembled in the province before joining the Nationalist advance through Extremadura in August.

During the following week of the uprising, Nationalist columns had secured the principal towns of Jerez de la Frontera, San Fernando, El Puerto de Santa María, Medina Sidonia, Arcos de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Alcalá de los Gazules, La Línea de la Concepción and many surrounding municipalities. By the end of July, organised Republican resistance had effectively disappeared from the province.

Military victory was quickly followed by political repression. Republican mayors, councillors, members of the PSOE, UGT, CNT and PCE, agricultural labour organisers, teachers and civilians accused of supporting the Republic were arrested throughout the province. Executions spread from town to town as Nationalist authority became established. Some of the best documented centres of repression include Jerez de la Frontera, San Fernando, Medina Sidonia, Arcos de la Frontera, Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Paterna de Rivera, Alcalá de los Gazules, Grazalema, Olvera, Bornos, Puerto Real, Conil de la Frontera, Barbate and Vejer de la Frontera. Many victims were executed beside local cemeteries, on roads outside towns or in improvised execution grounds following their arrest.

Modern historians estimate that between 500 – 900 Republicans were killed during the first wave of repression, much of it occurring during the last two weeks of July and continuing into early August. Although the exact figures vary between municipalities, the pattern was remarkably consistent – once military resistance ended, arrests were followed by summary executions targeting those associated with the Republic. By 30 July 1936, Cádiz Province was firmly under Nationalist control. The fighting had largely ended, but the arrests and executions continued as the new authorities consolidated their power across both the cities and the rural countryside.

• Huelva Province, Andalucía
• Republican-held: Mining basin and eastern districts
• Nationalist-held: Western and coastal districts

The situation in Huelva Province was more complex than in neighbouring Seville or Cádiz. While Nationalist forces quickly secured Huelva city, the Portuguese border district and much of the Atlantic coast, the eastern mining basin remained loyal to the Republic. Throughout July, the province was divided between a Nationalist west and a Republican east centred on the internationally important mining communities of Riotinto, Nerva, El Campillo, Minas de Riotinto, Campofrío and neighbouring villages.

Nationalist repression began almost immediately in the areas under their control. Republican officials, Socialist and Communist councillors, CNT and UGT activists, miners’ representatives and agricultural labour organisers were arrested as each municipality was occupied. The worst affected towns included Huelva, Ayamonte, Lepe, Cartaya, Moguer, La Palma del Condado, Bollullos Par del Condado, Valverde del Camino, Gibraleón, Almonte, Trigueros, Beas and numerous smaller communities. Executions frequently took place beside local cemeteries or on roads outside the towns shortly after arrests were made.

The mining basin experienced a different fate. Remaining under Republican control throughout July, Riotinto, Nerva, El Campillo and the surrounding communities escaped the first wave of Nationalist executions. Instead, they became centres of Republican mobilisation, supplying volunteers and attempting to organise resistance. The failed Riotinto miners’ column, ambushed at La Pañoleta outside Seville on 19 July, became one of the defining events of the province’s opening weeks.

Historians estimate that between 600 and 1,000 Republicans were killed during the first phase of Nationalist repression in Huelva Province, although many municipal studies combine the final days of July with the opening weeks of August. Republican repression within the mining district was comparatively limited during July, consisting mainly of arrests and a small number of executions of suspected Nationalist supporters. But Huelva city only had a population of 56,000, as another 265,000 lived rurally, and the intense cruelty of the mass executions was still to come for the northern regions.

As Nationalist forces consolidated their control over Huelva after 29 July 1936, La Soledad Cemetery became one of the principal execution and burial sites in western Andalucía. Prisoners were taken from Huelva Prison, police stations and other detention centres to the cemetery, where many were shot without meaningful judicial process and buried in common graves. Others died in prison or military custody before being interred alongside those executed. The burials continued for years. While the first victims were killed during the military occupation and the immediate wave of repression in 1936, executions and deaths in custody persisted throughout the Civil War and into the early years of the Franco dictatorship. As a result, La Soledad became the final resting place for victims from Huelva city and many surrounding towns across the province.

The scale of the cemetery only became fully apparent through modern historical research. In 2019, historians José María García Márquez and Miguel Ángel Harriero completed a comprehensive study of the cemetery’s burial registers and other archival records. They documented at least 1,437 victims of Francoist repression buried in the common graves of La Soledad between 1936 and 1944, identifying approximately 1,100 individuals by name. Their work transformed decades of family testimony into a documented historical record, restoring names to many people who had disappeared into anonymous graves. The victims represented every sector of Republican society. They included elected councillors, trade unionists, agricultural labourers, railway workers, teachers, municipal employees, dock workers and others accused of supporting the Republic. Many had never carried a weapon. Some were arrested simply because they belonged to a union, held public office during the Republic, or had been denounced by neighbours.

For families, the cemetery became a place of unanswered questions. Relatives often knew that a husband, father, daughter or brother had been taken away but received no official notification of their death or burial place. Fear prevented many from asking questions openly during the dictatorship, and the common graves remained largely unacknowledged for decades. Today, La Soledad Cemetery stands as one of the largest documented burial sites of Francoist repression in Andalusia. The identification of more than 1,400 victims has made it an essential place of historical memory, illustrating that the violence unleashed after the occupation of Huelva did not end with the fighting but continued for years through executions, imprisonment and political persecution.

On 29 July 1936, Moguer, 10km over the river from Huelva city, fell to Nationalist forces as Republican control collapsed across Huelva province. Earlier that day, Nationalist troops had secured Huelva city, isolating the surrounding towns and leaving them unable to mount an organised defence. Moguer was occupied with little fighting, but the absence of a battle did not spare its inhabitants from violence.

Before the uprising, Moguer was a town of approximately 11,000 people with a strong agricultural economy and an active labour movement. Socialist and Republican organisations had gained considerable support among agricultural workers during the Second Republic, bringing them into conflict with the town’s traditional landowning interests. When the Nationalists occupied the town, those political divisions quickly became the basis for systematic repression.

Historian Antonio Orihuela, whose study of the town is based on local archives, civil records and oral testimony, estimates that around 150 residents of Moguer were executed during the initial Francoist repression. He notes that only a handful of these deaths were officially recorded at the time, leaving most victims absent from the Civil Registry and forcing later researchers to reconstruct their identities from family testimony and surviving documentation.

Paul Preston identifies Moguer as one of the starkest examples of terror used during the Nationalist advance through western Andalusia. He writes that Nationalist forces killed men, women and children, looted the homes of Republican families, and raped Republican women. In Preston’s assessment, the violence was intended not simply to eliminate political opponents but to terrorise the wider population into submission.

Modern Democratic Memory research associates approximately 460 victims with Moguer over the course of the Civil War and the early Franco dictatorship, illustrating that the consequences of the occupation extended far beyond the first wave of executions. For the people of Moguer, 29 July 1936 marked the beginning of years of imprisonment, executions, persecution and silence rather than the end of the conflict.  In Moguer, a single mass grave is known to exist, located within the cemetery in the second courtyard. The grave is currently situated beneath a block of recently constructed niches. The number of victims in the grave is unknown; some estimate it to be over one hundred, although it is known that they came from Beas, San Juan del Puerto, Trigueros, and possibly Moguer itself.

Also on 29 July 1936, Palos de la Frontera fell to Nationalist forces following the capture of Huelva earlier the same day. Once the provincial capital had been secured, the remaining Republican-held towns along the lower Tinto and Odiel rivers became isolated. With no realistic prospect of reinforcement, organised resistance in Palos quickly collapsed, and Nationalist troops occupied the town with little fighting.

Before the military uprising, Palos de la Frontera was a small agricultural and fishing community of approximately 4,500 inhabitants. Like many towns in Huelva province, political life had become increasingly polarised during the Second Republic, with Republican and socialist organisations gaining support among agricultural workers while conservative landowners and right-wing groups opposed the reforms introduced after 1931. The town also became a centre for propaganda – right-wing tales of churches burning while filled with people, pregnant women slashed open by Republican militia, mass rape, pits filled with innocent Catholics filled the radios and newspapers, though none of it ever appeared to be true. Much like 21st century propaganda, the right were projecting their own crimes.

The occupation marked the beginning of systematic political repression. Nationalist authorities, assisted by the Guardia Civil and local Falangists, arrested Republican councillors, trade unionists, agricultural labourers and other people identified as supporters of the Republic. Many detainees were executed without trial during the weeks that followed, while others were imprisoned or subjected to military courts. Modern Democratic Memory research has identified 54 victims from Palos de la Frontera and records a mass grave in the municipal cemetery estimated to contain around 40 people. The true number of victims may never be known, as not every execution was officially recorded and many families remained silent for decades through fear of reprisals. Unlike larger towns such as Moguer, the repression in Palos has received comparatively little historical attention, leaving many individual stories undocumented. In Palos, only one mass grave is known, located within the cemetery to the left as you enter. It’s not easy to find immediately, as the cemetery has few open spaces. The grave lies beneath a commemorative plaque donated by the Town Hall. It is believed that the grave may contain the remains of 30 to 40 people, most of them from Palos and San Juan del Puerto. At some point, the families of some of the victims were able to move the remains of their relatives to niches and private graves, where the names of those murdered are inscribed on the headstones. The main execution sites were La Goleta on the road between Palos and La Rábida, and the cemetery gates themselves.

Rociana del Condado was a town of approximately 7,800 inhabitants in the agricultural district of El Condado, 40km east of Huelva. Vineyards, olive groves and cereal farming dominated the local economy, and many residents worked as agricultural labourers. During the Second Republic, socialist organisations and trade unions gained significant support, creating deep political divisions with conservative landowners and the Church.

Following the military uprising, Rociana remained under Republican control while Nationalist forces consolidated their hold on the rest of the province. According to the local oral testimony recorded by Paul Preston, the Republican mayor gave refuge to the parish priest, his niece and her daughter, protecting them from violence during the days the town remained in Republican hands. Nationalist troops occupied Rociana during the final week of July as they completed their advance across the Condado. According to the same oral testimony, the parish priest greeted the soldiers on their arrival and urged them to kill the town’s left-wing supporters, including the mayor who protected him. The testimony further alleges that around 60 people were executed in the immediate aftermath and that a dozen women were stripped, tied behind donkeys, dragged through the streets and then murdered.

The documented repression that followed was extensive, with Republican councillors, trade unionists, agricultural labourers and other supporters of the Republic were arrested over the following weeks and months. The cemetery at Rociana contains a mass grave holding more than 100 victims of Francoist repression, demonstrating that the violence extended well beyond the first days of the occupation. For a town of fewer than 8,000 inhabitants, the burial of more than one hundred people in a single common grave illustrates the extraordinary scale of the repression inflicted on the community. The cemetery, were the most executions were committed, stands as one of the principal sites of Democratic Memory in the Condado region. The mass grave preserves the evidence of a campaign that removed much of Rociana’s Republican leadership and left a lasting scar on a small agricultural town whose population numbered only a few thousand. A commemorative monolith for the victims was erected on the right-hand side in 1988, though has never be excavated.

By 30 July 1936, Huelva remained one of the few provinces in Andalucía where the military situation had not been fully resolved. The west and coastal districts were firmly under Nationalist authority, while the eastern mining basin remained Republican. The province therefore combined two experiences: expanding Nationalist repression in occupied municipalities and continued Republican resistance in the mining communities, where the outcome of the war had yet to be decided. Huelva Province had largely been secured by local Nationalist forces and columns operating from Seville. Detachments of the Army of Africa later passed through parts of the province, Huelva was not their principal objective. The experienced Legionnaires and Regulares were concentrated for the advance through Extremadura, while Huelva’s eastern mining basin remained outside Nationalist control.

• Córdoba Province, Andalucía
• Republican held: North and east
• Nationalist held: Capital, south and west

In Córdoba, Colonel Ciriaco Cascajo Ruiz had secured the provincial capital on 18 July after only a few hours of fighting. The battle itself claimed relatively few lives, but the victory allowed the military authorities to begin consolidating their control almost immediately. Republican officials, trade union organisers, councillors, teachers and known supporters of the Popular Front were arrested as prisons filled with detainees. Executions followed within days. As the Nationalists extended their authority into towns under their control, the repression spread beyond the city. By the end of July, historians estimate that around 2,000 people had already been executed across the province during the opening phase of the repression, out of a population of only 735,000, although many districts of northern and eastern Córdoba remained outside Nationalist control.

Those Republican-held districts prevented the province from becoming a secure Nationalist area. Around Pozoblanco, Hinojosa del Duque, Peñarroya-Pueblonuevo and other communities in Los Pedroches, Republican authorities continued to function. Local defence committees organised militias, maintained communications and prepared for an offensive they believed would eventually come from Córdoba city. The result was a province divided almost from the first week of the war. That meant Nationalist executions were taking place in the occupied parts of Córdoba Province while Republican authorities still governed other parts of the same province, though they reported only 100-300 deaths of Nationalist sympathisers in the regions, a fraction of the slaughter of Republicans.

On 29 July, Nationalist forces captured Puente Genil, one of the largest industrial towns in southern Córdoba Province. Since the outbreak of the military uprising, the town had remained under Republican control, defended by local militia groups, trade union members and armed civilians. As Nationalist columns advanced from Córdoba, the defenders were unable to withstand the better-equipped force, and the town fell after a brief but determined resistance.

The capture was followed by immediate reprisals. Republican officials, members of the CNT and UGT, municipal employees, agricultural labourers and civilians accused of supporting the Republic were arrested in large numbers. Many were executed without trial during the following days and weeks, with bodies buried in the municipal cemetery and other locations around the town. Historians regard Puente Genil as one of the principal centres of early Nationalist repression in Córdoba Province, where military occupation was rapidly followed by systematic political violence. Though the exact number of those killed immediately after the town’s capture remains uncertain, modern research has identified hundreds of victims from Puente Genil during the Civil War and its aftermath. The events of 29 July marked the beginning of a prolonged campaign of arrests, executions and imprisonment that devastated the town’s Republican movement and left a legacy that endured long after the fighting had moved elsewhere.

• Granada Province, Andalucía
• Republican-held: East and south-east
• Nationalist-held: Capital and central districts

Granada, population 750,000, followed a similar pattern. After the city fell on 20 July, rebel commanders rapidly established control over government offices, military installations and communications. Arrests began almost immediately. Within days, prisoners were being removed from detention centres and transported to execution sites around Víznar and Alfacar, where the first shootings of what would become one of the largest campaigns of repression in southern Spain began, and by the end of July, between 800-1,500 civilians had been executed. The murder of Federico García Lorca would later become the most internationally recognised of these killings, but by the end of July he was only one among many detainees disappearing into the growing machinery of repression.

Like Córdoba, however, Granada Province remained divided. While the city itself was firmly in Nationalist hands, large areas of the eastern province, including Guadix, Baza and much of the Alpujarras, continued to support the Republic. The mountainous landscape made rapid military conquest impossible. Republican councils remained in office, local militias guarded roads and villages, and eastern Granada became another active front rather than conquered territory. The north (Los Pedroches) and parts of the east remained Republican. These Republican-held areas only reported around 50-150 deaths of Nationalists in fighting during the uprisingin these regions throughout July.

• Jaén Province, Andalucía
• Republican held: Vast majority of province
• Nationalist held: Small frontier enclaves only

The military uprising failed in Jaén, leaving almost the entire province under Republican control. Unlike neighbouring Córdoba and Granada, where Nationalist forces quickly established military authority, Jaén remained governed by Republican civil officials supported by loyal security forces and workers’ organisations. Within days of the failed coup, hundreds of people suspected of supporting the rebellion, including army officers, Falangists, conservative politicians, landowners and members of the clergy, had been arrested across the province. Jaén was unlike the other southern provinces in almost every way; the capital city only had a population of 68,000, showing how the military in the area had very little resources, and were easy to overwhelm. The vast bulk of the population of Jaén lives rurally in olive-growing towns, with 765,000 people spread over the wide area.

Most prisoners were initially confined in the Provincial Prison of Jaén, but the rapid growth in arrests soon overwhelmed the prison system. Additional detention centres were established throughout the province, the largest being Jaén Cathedral, which was converted into a temporary prison. By the beginning of August, hundreds of prisoners were being held there under guard while the authorities struggled to cope with the growing number of detainees.

Although isolated sacas, the removal of prisoners from local prisons without trial, occurred during the second half of July, the best documented act of Republican repression took place in Úbeda. On the night of 30 July 1936, an armed crowd forced entry into the town’s prison and removed prisoners who had been detained following the failed military uprising. Approximately 48 prisoners were murdered, although some contemporary accounts rounded the total to fifty. Most of the victims were conservative civilians, landowners, right-wing political figures and other detainees suspected of supporting the Nationalist rebellion.

Elsewhere in the province, arrests and smaller-scale killings are documented in municipalities including Jaén, Andújar, Alcalá la Real, Martos and Porcuna, although historians are often unable to determine whether individual deaths occurred during the final days of July or in the first weeks of August, where another 20-70 Nationalist sympathisers were killed. Unlike Seville or Córdoba, where executions rapidly spread across dozens of municipalities under military occupation, Republican repression in Jaén during July remained concentrated around prisons and detention centres rather than a province-wide network of execution sites. Not every municipality experienced the same level of violence. In Marmolejo, suspected Nationalist supporters were arrested during the final days of July and confined in the municipal slaughterhouse, which had been converted into a temporary prison. Local testimony suggests that Republican officials attempted to prevent prisoners from being removed by armed militias for extrajudicial execution. Although conditions were tense and isolated attacks occurred, Marmolejo illustrates that some local authorities sought to maintain custody over prisoners rather than allow the uncontrolled violence seen elsewhere in the province.

The 30 July massacre at Úbeda exposed the increasingly fragile situation facing the Republican authorities. Civil Governor Luis Rius Zunón recognised that overcrowded prisons could no longer be adequately protected from attacks by armed groups. During the following days he requested permission to transfer hundreds of prisoners to prisons near Madrid, believing they would be safer there. Instead, those transfers culminated in the Death Trains of Jaén during August, when more than 200 prisoners lost their lives.

Provinces Where the Coup Failed: Málaga and Almería provinces in Andalucía, plus Murcia and Albacete* provinces in Murcia

*Albacete was part of Murcia until 1982, now Castilla La-Mancha

The opening weeks of the Civil War were not marked by mass repression everywhere. In Málaga, Almería, Murcia and Albacete, the military uprising failed, leaving the provinces under Republican control throughout July 1936. Although arrests, attacks on churches, anti-clerical violence and a limited number of political killings occurred, none experienced the immediate, province-wide campaigns of Nationalist executions that were unfolding simultaneously in Seville, Córdoba or Granada.

Málaga Province, population 860,000, occupied a unique position. While the provincial capital remained firmly Republican, Nationalist forces secured a number of western inland towns, including Antequera and neighbouring municipalities, where executions of Republican supporters began after their occupation. Elsewhere, however, Republican authority survived. The province therefore experienced both Republican and Nationalist violence, but neither reached the scale seen in western Andalucía during July. Only 50–150 Republican sympathisers died in sporadic violence in July in the western areas while the Nationalists lost 100–300 throughout the province.

In Almería Province, the coup collapsed quickly and Republican institutions retained control over the 290,000 inhabitants. Despite political tension and the arrest of suspected Nationalist sympathisers, there is little evidence of widespread political executions during July, and no record of Republicans being killed, while 10-50 Nationalists died during the month. The province remained comparatively stable during the opening month of the war, with the larger upheavals arriving later as refugees, bombing and military operations transformed life along the Mediterranean coast.

The military uprising also failed in Murcia and Albacete. Both provinces became secure Republican strongholds, where the immediate priority was organising defence, raising militia columns among its 640,000 people, and maintaining communications with Madrid and the southeast. Suspected conspirators and right-wing activists were arrested, but the level of political killing during July remained relatively low compared with provinces where the coup had succeeded or where heavy fighting continued. Albacete reported no Republican losses and were swiftly arresting Nationalists and rebel plotters as fast as they could, but even then less than 100 deaths are estimated for the area, and no scaled executions took place among the population of 390,000.

These provinces provide an important reminder that the geography of violence in July 1936 was highly uneven. While some regions descended almost immediately into systematic political repression, others spent the opening weeks of the war mobilising for a conflict that had only just begun. Their experiences demonstrate that the scale of early violence depended not simply on political divisions, but on whether the military uprising succeeded, failed or left a province divided.

• Cáceres Province, Extremadura
• Republican-held: none
• Nationalist-held: total province from initial uprising onwards

The military uprising succeeded rapidly across most of Cáceres Province, population 730,000. On 18 July, Army officers, the Guardia Civil and other security forces declared for the rebellion in the provincial capital, while most major towns followed with little organised resistance. Unlike Madrid or Barcelona, there were no prolonged street battles. Republican officials were quickly arrested, local councils were replaced by military authorities and the province became one of the earliest secure Nationalist territories in western Spain.

Although the front quickly moved south towards Badajoz, repression began almost immediately behind it. Suspected Republican supporters, trade union members, Socialist and Communist councillors, teachers and labour activists were arrested throughout the province. Executions followed in many municipalities, including Cáceres, Plasencia, Trujillo, Navalmoral de la Mata, Coria, Valencia de Alcántara, Logrosán and numerous smaller villages. Historians estimate that  1,000 Republicans were executed during July, making Cáceres one of the earliest provinces to experience systematic Nationalist repression despite seeing relatively little fighting. Military operations during the remainder of July focused less on securing the province itself than on preparing the advance into neighbouring Badajoz Province. By the end of the month, Cáceres served as an important Nationalist area supplying troops and communications for the offensive that would eventually link the Army of Africa with Nationalist forces further north.

• Badajoz Province, Extremadura
• Republican-held: All major populated areas west, north, and east
• Nationalist-held: Central populated areas

The situation in Badajoz Province was far more fluid. Unlike Cáceres, the uprising succeeded only in parts of the province. During the first days after the coup, Nationalist forces secured Mérida, Almendralejo, Zafra and several northern and eastern municipalities, while Badajoz city, Don Benito, Villanueva de la Serena, Castuera, Herrera del Duque and much of the surrounding countryside remained under Republican control, where much of the 820,000 inhabitants lived.

As a result, Badajoz spent the whole of July divided between two administrations. Republican authorities continued to govern the provincial capital, organised militia columns and prepared defensive positions against an expected Nationalist offensive from the south. At the same time, Nationalist commanders consolidated their control over the towns they had captured, replacing local governments and arresting suspected Republican supporters.

Political repression occurred on both sides of the front, although on a much smaller scale than the events that would follow in August. In Nationalist-held towns such as Mérida, Almendralejo and Zafra, Republican officials, trade unionists and labour activists were arrested and executed. Historians estimate between 200 and 500 Republicans were killed in Nationalist repression across the province before the end of July.

Republican authorities also carried out arrests and executions in areas that remained under their control. Those targeted included military conspirators, Falangists, landowners, members of right-wing parties and individuals accused of supporting the rebellion. Current research suggests approximately 100 Nationalist supporters were killed in Republican repression during July, although the exact total remains uncertain because many studies combine the figures for July and August. At the same time, Nationalist who supported the uprising were still trying to take control of the region, with between 200-500 Republicans killed in the same period.

By 30 July 1936, Badajoz Province remained one of the few major regions of western Spain where the outcome of the uprising was still undecided. The provincial capital remained Republican, the Nationalists controlled important transport centres to the east and south, and both sides were preparing for the campaign that would transform the province in August. The massacres most commonly associated with Badajoz still lay in the future. For the moment, Extremadura remained divided between a secure Nationalist area in Cáceres and an active front line running through Badajoz Province.

But mass slaughter was coming.